Dear Praying and Supporting Friends,
Psalm 23:4 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
Since our last prayer letter we have been through very difficult valleys that have been sandwiched with blessings. In March we hosted our annual ladies conference. At that point we were allowed to have church again. We were not sure how many would come due to the never ending Covid restrictions here in Brazil. Praise the Lord, even though we were down, we still had a good group turn up. God placed on our heart to change the theme to “Walking by Faith and not by Fear.” God used the meeting in a powerful way. Teca came with her pastor’s wife. She had not told anyone that she was extremely ill with cancer. Because of the meeting she trusted Christ and she stated the meeting was made just for her.
After that amazing meeting we headed to Field Conference with the BIMI missionaries and other like minded missionaries. It was an amazing refreshing time spiritually and we were really going to need it. When we got home the state went into another severe lockdown. Some cities were not even allowed to open grocery stores. During this time everyone in our church, with the exception of one family, came down with Covid, including ourselves. This was Rebekah’s second run with it, having already had it in America.
If you see our Facebook page you will remember that we asked for urgent prayer for our dear friend and co-laborer, Agnaldo Araujo. His entire family became ill with the Covid. Agnaldo was waking up from his induced coma from Covid on April 16, but God chose to take him home, with a major heart attack. This was a huge and shocking loss to us and to our church. He has left behind his dear wife Daleth, a son Timoteo, who is planning on attending Bible college in the states should God allow, and Rebecca who is 13 and has down syndrome. Be in prayer for Daleth as she has decided to continue her husband’s work in the prisons. She will continue to be a missionary to the female prison system of Brazil. This will be a challenging time. She has had some churches promise to continue her support but others have already given notice they will be dropping her support. This is especially difficult because Brazil charges the family of a recently deceased person with extremely high death taxes on everything the deceased owns.
The week after Agnaldo died we got word that our Eldest son, Jeff and his wife, Rebecka were expecting our first grandchild. One week later they called with the news that they had lost the baby. They chose to name our grandchild, Felix, because it means glad. Needless to say, fresh off the loss of Pastor Agnaldo the loss of our grandchild was a particularly difficult blow.
Thankfully we were able to open the church back up at the end of March. As soon as we could meet we had a memorial service for Pastor Agnaldo, because in Brazil during Covid they are only allowing the family 12 hours to get the body in the ground. This means hardly anyone can come to the funeral. It was a good time for our church to say goodbye to such a great man of God.
In all of the ups and downs emotionally we are so thankful to God for our church people. It has been a rough time. One family in particular has been a huge balm to our soul. Neto, Carol, Vanessa (13), Gustavo (9), and Natasha (3) have not missed one service except when they were ill with Covid and when Government restrictions kept them from even leaving their home. This dear family lives in the next town over and takes an Uber to church. We take them home. When Uber passed a new Covid rule that only 3 people could be in the car Neto began walking and taking the train to church. When our car broke down in May the entire family walked 1 hour and 1/2 to attend church. They have been there to stuff the mailboxes and despite constant rejection have been inviting and witnessing to their neighbours. They are a reminder that ” God is good all the time; All the time God is good.”
On May 23, Rebekah was teaching the children’s Sunday School class. Gustavo had prayed with various people about salvation but Rebekah had noticed he seemed to have no idea what had happened. After a very slow and child level explanation Gustavo finally understood the full gospel message and prayed and asked Jesus to save him.
We have been posting soul winning videos, and our podcast material during these continually uncertain days here in Brazil. Be in prayer for an upcoming homeschool meeting we have been asked to present at. Pray it does not get cancelled due to more lockdowns. With very few schools open for over a year the homeschooling groups are growing. Pray we can get God-centered material into these homes to show them the truth of the gospel through their education.
We want to end this particular prayer letter with this statement ” God is good ALL the time. ALL the time God IS GOOD!”
In His Service,
Bryan and Rebekah Johnson